Increasing Giving with Integrated Cross Channel Strategy
Client: Saint Francis University
Industry: Education
Goal: Increase giving to the Annual Fund
Results: An 80% increase in donations from the previous year.
“Thank you for your work on our Giving Tuesday video, posts and appeal. We surpassed last year’s total.”
Goal
To increase donations for the Giving Tuesday campaign, which is a one day campaign that occurs the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. The campaign is run every year with varying strategies and concepts.
Solution
Pacesetter began laying the foundation for a successful campaign in the previous academic year. The 2017-2018 strategy focused on fostering donations from current donors, as well as increasing brand awareness and good faith with potential future donors. The strategy employed a focus on engagement that would create a pattern of action. Pacesetter was able to increase organic reach by 182%, a metric that has been steadily decreasing for pages in the last few years. Just between January and July 2016, publishers saw a 52% decline in organic reach on Facebook (source). Being able to produce such gains in this environment is a result of well planned and executed content. We were also able to increase impressions by 192%, and engagement by 407% over the previous academic year, consistently performing well above a 1% engagement rate, typically considered good post performance (source). SFU organic posts often rate in the teens. When the Giving Tuesday 2018 campaign launched, alumni were already engaged and invested.
In an effort to ensure consistency across all outbound channels, The Giving Tuesday campaign utilized the college’s “Become That Someone” tagline. Potential donors were encouraged to “Become That Someone Who Helps SFU Students”, through a video that highlighted the ways donations assist students by providing valuable education and experience. This video was utilized on a landing page, which included a countdown to the end of the campaign and was used in promoted social ads, which appeared on Facebook and Instagram. Email elements were also used to drive traffic to the landing page and ultimately, the donation form.
Outcome
The college saw a total of $43,131 in donations from 152 donors during this one day campaign. An increase of 80% from the previous year!
